Written by

Maria Amante

Gannett Wisconsin Media

Republican lawmakers and Gov. Scott Walker are starting 2013 by renewing their efforts to allow a new mining operation in northern Wisconsin that they say will bring hundreds of new jobs, but failed to win support last year because of environmental concerns.

Walker stopped in three cities, including Green Bay, on Wednesday in an effort to gather support for the measure in the 2013-14 legislative session. The bill still is in draft stages, but should include only “a few tweaks” to distinguish it from last year’s Assembly bill, he said at Valley Plating and Fabricating 111 W. Walnut St.

Florida-based Goebic Taconite has been working with Republicans to open an iron mine south of Lake Superior. Company officials say the mine would create 700 jobs in the economically depressed region and Republican legislators are aiming to ease the regulatory path.

“Folks from outside of the state were trying to shut down (the bill) due to the politics of the recall,” Walker said Wednesday. “The environmental provisions had next to nothing to do with the passage of the bill. I think it was entirely politics. Fourteen senators were under tremendous pressure from Washington, D.C., forces not to pass legislation that would relate to jobs.”

With a GOP majority in both houses of the Legislature, Republicans should be able to push the legislation through.

Walker and Sen. Dave Hansen, D-Green Bay, both acknowledge a tradition of mining in the state, but Hansen said bringing the company to Wisconsin is not an “overnight solution” to the jobs situation in the state. Hansen said it will take several years before construction will begin on the mine.

The Wisconsin League of Conservation Voters, environmental advocates who opposed the bill, said last year its failure in the Legislature was “a victory” for water quality around the state. They worry water near the mine would contaminate drinking water with arsenic, lead and mercury.

“I’m not saying the permitting process is impossible, but it’s not going to create jobs overnight,” said Hansen, who voted against the measure last year with other Democrats and Sen. Dale Schultz, R-Richland Center. “We should be focusing on education and job training.”

Hansen also rejects the idea that politics was the reason the bill failed in the Senate.

“It’s not (political),” he said. “It’s about doing the right thing. Bring on the mines, bring on the jobs ... we gotta protect the groundwater and make sure it will be taken care of. Take care of our future generations, so we’re not just leaving a waste hole, a nuisance, for generations to come.”

Assembly Minority Leader Peter Barca, D-Kenosha, said in a statement that a bipartisan mining bill is an “important” priority for this session.

“We need to make sure the bill creates mining jobs and also protects our natural resources, as well as our tourism and agricultural economies that are so vital to Wisconsin,” Barca said.